Waiting
Was that fake news? Perhaps, but it mirrored a division between the haves and the have-nots that ended in terror on both sides.
Maybe we should let them eat paper towels.
Or a golf trophy.
How does a democracy survive an uninformed, incurious, intemperate and impulse-ridden leader? One who sees only himself reflected in the mirror of reality? One in whom empathy has shriveled and died, if it was ever there?
I was born missing an enzyme. Are there people who are born missing compassion? Was it left out of their pablum?
An ominous cloud of passivity smolders in this republic. We seem to be
Waiting for the courts to catch up with a law-breaker, a lie-maker
Waiting for a spineless self-serving congress to act responsibly
Waiting for some one, some thing, to take charge.
Waiting in denial: that mushroom cloud couldn't really rain extinction on us all, could it? Is it really true that the human species is addicted to war? (1) Do we have a leader who is addicted to confrontation, to shocking rapier-like verbal thrusts, so that attention, even and especially negative attention, swirls constantly around him?
And as we wait, as we ignore the festering inaction, our freedoms slowly evaporate, like just another species sliding into extinction.
Recently, I heard a child say to the corpse of her mother, "Please...come back".
I say to common sense, kindness, generosity, healing hands and helping hearts, Please...come back.
But they can't come back, any more than the damage done to trees, forests, fish and water can be rolled back
As we sit, waiting
I want to hug that little girl, reassure her, reawaken hope
But she knows, as I know, that her Mother is never
Coming back.
Please, America...come back.(2)
(1)war
(2) Viewers might want to think about the words of Rachel Carson: "It is one of the ironies of our time that, while concentrating on the defense of our country against enemies from without, we should be so heedless of those who would destroy it from within".
(On a brighter note, here's what I'm waiting for: all members of Congress, including their staffs and families, have to buy their own medical insurance just like the rest of us!)
c. Corinne Whitaker 2017